Book 4: Salmacis and Hermaphroditus Notes from Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses Book 4: Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

The third of Minyas' daughters told this story. Salmacis was a water nymph who was gathering flowers near her pool when she saw Hermaphroditus one day. She fell in love with the son of Mercury and Venus, but Hermaphroditus denied her advances. She pretended to leave him there in the woods, and soon he was swimming naked in her pool of water. She dove in with him and wrapped herself around him as he struggled to get away. She said that they would never be separated again, and the gods granted her wish. The two fused into one being, and Hermaphroditus was now half-man, half-woman. Distraught at his emasculation, he begged his parents to make any man that bathed in Salmacis' pool turn half-man and half-woman.